Business

Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc.’s fourth-quarter profit fell to $697 million, or $1.04 a share, from $1.55 billion, or $2.32, a year ago, on lower production and acquisition costs.

Durable goods orders rose 4.6% in December, the Commerce Department reported Monday.

Gasoline rose 2 cents in the past two weeks to $3.344 a gallon, according to the latest Lundberg survey of filling stations released Sunday.

The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute has its tin cup out and is in definite need of a few bucks. And we think it would be in trucking’s interest to make sure UMTRI finds the needed money — and quickly. 

The case for going paperless is compelling, but how to get there is not evident. If you’re ready to eliminate the mounds of overwhelming paperwork in your office, you need to select a document-management solution.

Drayage fleets have won regulatory approval to set up the first trucker-owned chassis pool for highway moves of intermodal cargo at a time when ocean carriers are moving away from their role of providing that equipment.

Intermodal freight growth sagged in the fourth quarter due to disruptions from Superstorm Sandy and labor unrest at ports, industry officials said.

Four of the largest publicly traded truckload carriers in North America posted higher earnings in the final three months of 2012, despite higher fuel prices and an uncertain economic environment.

Truck tonnage fell 2.3% in December from an all-time high the same month a year ago, but freight levels were strong enough to offer at least some short-term market optimism, American Trucking Associations reported.

WASHINGTON — Employees from nearly every state’s department of transportation came together with federal officials here to set a course for future transportation funding decisions.